Dr. Seay was featured in the October 2012 issue of Sustainability: the Journal of Record in an article titled “Sustainability and Engineering Unite”. The article, by Ted Mero, follows up with several participants from the 2009 sustainability education workshop held at Carnegie-Mellon University by the Center for Sustainable Engineering. The recent contributions to sustainability education of the workshop participants is highlighted.

Three undergraduate research students advised by Dr. Seay, Max Croft, William Croft and Landon Mott, presented their work at the 2012 AIChE Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. Sophomore Max Croft presented his poster titled “A Project Developing a Process for Sustainable Low Cost Biofuel and Biochar for Rural West Africa in Sustainability. Sophomore William Croft won 1st place in Environmental Science and Engineering II for his poster titled “A Renewable Process for Producing Low-Cost Biofuel and Biochar for Rural West Africa”. Senior Landon Mott won 3rd place in Education for his poster titled “Inductive Methods of Teaching Batch Distillation Through Simulation”. Landon is co-advised by Dr. David Silverstein.

Dr. Seay, recently lead seven UK Paducah chemical and mechanical engineering research students in a design project to develop low-cost, environmentally friendly technologies to produce biodiesel for rural villagers in Cameroon, Africa. Dr. Seay and the students worked with the African Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (ACREST) to design the process using resources and materials readily available in Cameroon. The 10-day trip to Bangang, Cameroon to work with the local villagers in implementing and refining the design was the culmination of this year-long project.

Dr. Seay and Co-PI Dr. David Silverstein have been selected to receive a Phase 1 award through the US EPA’s People, Prosperity and the Planet Design Competition for the 2012 – 2013 academic year. As part of this award, Dr. Seay and Dr. Silverstein will lead a team of students to compete in the National Sustainable Design Expo, to be held on the National Mall in Washington, DC, next April. The project will be based on developing an integrated biodiesel and biochar apparatus for use in the developing world.

The Undergraduate Research Group presented their research work on the Cameroon Biodiesel Project at the Math, Engineering, and Science Conference (MESCON) at the University of Evansville on March 23, 2012.

PhD student Sumesh Sukumara has been awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award at the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment 2nd Annual Research Showcase in Lexington, Kentucky for his contribution titled “Multidisciplinary Approach in Developing a Region Specific Optimization Model for Sustainable Biorefining”.